A problem in the art of wireless communications is the need to establish initial access and synchronization of each remote terminal with the base station currently serving it. One prior art solution to this problem for time division multiple access (TDMA) systems—such as systems implementing the Groupe Special Mobile (GSM) standards and the North American TDMA standard IS-136—is to employ one or more separately dedicated control channels that are distinct in frequency from the time shared channels utilized for user traffic. This approach does not permit performance of modem functionality for user traffic channels based on the control channel characteristics. In other words, user traffic channel characteristics cannot be reliably determined from the control channels. This is because the environmental effects which affect the frequencies of the control channels may not similarly affect the user traffic channels. Also, disadvantageously, in such prior art systems, because the number of control channels are fixed, only a limited number of remote terminals may be able to access the system, e.g., to request new service, enhanced bandwidth, or reduced bandwidth, at any one time.